In this episode of Practically Conscious, I talk with Nabhaniilananda, also know as ‘the monk dude’.

Born in New Zealand, Dada had a profound spiritual experience at 19 years old that led him to become a Yoga Monk of Ananda Marga in 1979. Dada currently lives in California and teaches meditation at such places as Google, Facebook, and UC Berkley.

I hope you enjoy hearing his amazing story, and there’s a lot we can learn from him!

Listen to this episode with the player above or subscribe & review at iTunes or Stitcher,

Markus Henning Giess and Karin Michelle Sang are the founders of

Yin Therapy. Following successful musical theater careers – they met while performing in the musical Cats in Berlin, Germany – Markus and Karin became yoga experts. Increasingly interested in the benefits of yin yoga, they now offer workshops and teacher trainings in Europe and Australasia focused on yin yoga and anatomy.

In this episode we talk about their transition from theater to yoga as well as their recent move from Markus’ home country of Germany to Karin’s home country of New Zealand. We touch on how Bryan Kest’s teachings liberated their yoga practices and teaching, plus their challenge as dancers to pull back and not do too much physically. Paul and Suzee Grilley’s yin teachings have had a profound effect on their yoga practice and their lives, teaching them to respect their own bodies.

Other topics covered include:

-Yin Yoga as a cure for back pain and as a tool to become mentally positive.

-How stress causes fascia, or connective tissue, to contract resulting in physical pain, and how stretching and relaxing through Yin Yoga helps to relax and rejuvenate the fascia. This also results in reduced mental stress.

-How we “cheat” in yoga poses and ultimately that’s ok, it’s more important how the pose feels.

-How children can help with your yoga practice by keeping you in the present moment.

Enjoy!

Listen to this episode with the player above or subscribe & review at iTunes or Stitcher,

Useful links from the show:

www.yintherapy.com – Markus and Karin’s home on the web where you can find more about their teaching and upcoming trainings.

The past month

has been a transition period for me, and I’m sure some of you have noticed I have been less consistent getting ideas, advice, and inspiration out to you. I apologize if you have not been getting all you want from me, but I’m excited about big changes in the coming months that will help me serve you better. So I wanted to give you an update of some of the changes and goals you will see in the coming months.

Family.

My wonderful wife and daughter continue to be a joy and inspiration to me. Darina, my wife, has been fabulous in helping me re-prioritize my efforts to share all I have to offer. In addition to my architecture, city design, yoga & meditation classes, blogging, and taking a podcasting course, we’ve moved from the Czech Republic back to Washington DC. It has been a big transition, getting our 4 month old daughter into a new routine, still getting used to parenting, unpacking, and trying to keep up with all of my other efforts. Through it all, my wife and daughter have been amazing!

Architecture.

Architecture and design continues to provide significant income for us. The time it takes, however, continues to be a challenges. I suppose this is one most of us struggle with, work-life balance. My plans for the future here are to better align my architecture projects with my passion for yoga. I think this will mean less city design, and more health and wellness projects that are smaller in scale – spas, yoga studios, hotels, and individual houses. After some reflection, I realized that my favorite projects have been the smaller ones, where I have more direct connection with the client and the end user. The projects finish faster, and the positive impacts on peoples lives can be seen more directly.

Yoga and Meditation.

Now that I’m back in the US, I have been able to get back to a regular teaching schedule. It has been great to re-connect with students and meet lots of amazing new people. I’m teaching meditation within my yoga classes, but there may be an opportunity to start a pure meditation class, which would be wonderful. I have some ideas for additional workshops and trainings, but these are things that will have to wait a bit before they can be realized.

Website Reorganization.

I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I started my website, so I let it grow organically. It became a bit disorganized and unclear as to the purpose, information I am trying to convey, and the entertainment I am trying to provide. I’m excited that I have it clear in my head the direction I want to head in with the website. I will have to find the time for a redesign, or perhaps venture into the world of virtual assistants to get it to happen.

Book update.

I made great progress on my book, tentatively titled “Your Power”, while in the Czech Republic for three and a half months. I would say I’m about 90 percent done with the first draft. I was hoping to have the book published my mid-2014, but it is now looking more like it will be towards the end of the year.

Podcast.

This one is really exciting for me! I just finished the first week of a four week course with the amazing Cliff Ravenscraft, “the podcast answerman”. Cliff has trained over 50% of the top ten podcasters in EVERY category on iTunes, and I feel like I have already learned a ton. I’m not yet sure when the launch date for my podcast will be, but I’m excited to tell you that the show will focus on meditation, yoga, and consciousness. I’ve already started lining up some great people to interview for the show and I think it will make an important contribution to getting the word out about the huge benefits of these practices.

So that’s the update!

Thanks as always for all the support as I continue on this journey. I look forward to continuing to connect with you as I share the best of yoga, meditation, consciousness, architecture, and design.